By Jacob Kaye
A Queens City Councilmember sparked outrage over the weekend after she called for the “expulsion of Muslims from western nations” in a since-deleted Islamophobic social media post that prompted calls for her censure.
In several posts to X following the killing of 13 people at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia by a pair of gunmen, Republican City Councilmember Vickie Paladino, who represents parts of northeast Queens in the Council, said Western governments should restrict Muslims from living within their borders. She also reposted a number of tweets expressing similar sentiments, including one that called on governments to “ban Islam.”
“We need to take very seriously the need to begin the expulsion of Muslims from western nations, or at the very least the severe sanction of them within western borders,” Paladino said on X in a Sunday post that she deleted on Monday afternoon. “The administration needs to begin developing a formal legal framework for the denaturalization process and get it over with before we end up with another 9/11 or worse.”
The Islamophobic remarks drew immediate condemnation from some of her Council colleagues, who called Paladino’s messages “disgusting” and “deplorable.”
Outgoing New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said that “the City Council should begin censure proceedings this week.”
While City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said any punishment for the tweets was out of her hands, she denounced Paladino’s comments, which were far from the first to prompt such a response from the speaker and the Queens lawmaker’s colleagues.
“I strongly condemn this hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric that threatens the safety of us all,” the speaker said in a statement. “It should have no place in our city and nation, and instead has become common behavior from this particular councilmember.”
Adams added that it was the “responsibility of the Council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics to bring disciplinary action against councilmembers.”
City Councilmember Julie Menin, who is likely to serve as the City Council’s next speaker, similarly did not take a position on censuring Paladino but said that “blaming Muslims for the attack in Sydney is dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric.”
“I will obviously be talking to Councilmember Paladino about these comments,” Menin said during an appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on Monday. “We cannot allow this type of rhetoric to stand.”
“I completely disavow those comments,” she added.
On Monday afternoon, Menin said that she had asked Paladino to remove the post so that the lawmakers could “bring all communities together, not further divide them.”
Minority Leader Joann Ariola, who appointed Paladino minority whip earlier this year, did not respond to the Eagle’s request for comment before press time.
A little less than a quarter of all Muslims living in the United States live in New York City, where around 760,000 people practice the second-most popular religion in the world. Among them is Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s mayor-elect.
About a week before Mamdani, who has represented a large population of Muslim Queens residents in the state Assembly since 2021, won the Democratic primary election for mayor, Paladino claimed without evidence that the Uganda-born Astoria resident’s path to U.S. citizenship was “rife with illegalities.” In a post to social media, Paladino called on the federal government to “deport” Mamdani.
“Let’s just talk about how insane it is to elect someone to any major office who hasn’t even been a U.S. citizen for ten years,” Paladino’s post read. “Much less a radical leftist who actually hates everything about the country and is here specifically to undermine everything we’ve ever been about.”
A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment on Paladino’s remarks on Monday.
Paladino’s office did not respond to additional requests for comment from the Eagle.
